International Business- Article Review

Part A: Student and Article Information (This part is excluded from the word count)

Your name

Student ID

Title of the selected article

Understanding the rise of global protectionism

Author(s) of the article

Peter Enderwick

Part B: Use your own words and sentences to complete each section (the questions are excluded from the word count)

Objectives: What does the article set out to do?

This article sets out to create an understanding in the recent rise of global protectionism in the global economy.

Subject and theories/concepts: What is the article about? What is its subject? What are the central concepts and/or theories discussed in the article?

This article is about the recent rise of global protectionism and understanding how it is different from the traditional protectionism in terms of geography, applications, concerns and measures applied. It addresses the challenges of theorising determinants and provides insights on the correlation between globalisation and global protectionism despite the apparent incompatibility. Several countries such as Russia, China, France were taken in as examples to emphasise on the impacts of global protectionism.

Findings/main arguments: What are the key findings or main arguments of the author?

The article has three main findings. The first is that it foresees a decrease in the significance of economic patriotism as global economic activity and the expanding role of international agencies and multinational enterprises disintegrate the economic power of individual country (Park, 2018). This means that there will be a reduction in the control of the economy domestically which allows companies to use the chance to lift prices to extract greater profits (Adele and Fouda, 2012).

However, by doing so it crashes the economic power of that particular country.

The second finding is while the world economy is evolving, there is a rise in importance of foreign direct investments and offshore outsourcing. This shows that a wider scope of protection is required and global protectionism is a considerable choice compared to the traditional trade protectionism which restricts only the free movement of goods and services (Abboushi, 2010). The key strategic concern of the government is on national security instead of national defense in this modern society hence directing back to the recent rise in global protectionism.

Finally, there are factors that promote global protectionism on three levels — international, national and unique cultural or historical level. On international level there is a rise of new competitors in the market which possibly includes China and India. This potentially elevate concerns in regards to national security (Abboushi, 2010). Following up will be national level, the level of competitive strength or weaknesses of an economy will be evaluated. A high cost economy with cost that do not reflect productivity is very vulnerable to overseas competition which probably requires protectionist measures (Cheong and Tongzon, 2018). As for unique cultural or historical level, past historical experiences or distinct social cultural traits can also encourage global protectionism.

Literature and contribution: What relationship does the article bear to other works in the literature? What contribution does the article make to the existing body of the literature?

(You should refer to at least two other scholarly journal articles)

The articles share similar insights in regards to the topic on protectionism. The articles write about traditional trade protectionism and touches on anti-globalisation which indirectly refers to global protectionism. The articles also talk about economic nationalism which helps to deepen the

understanding with this topic. On top of that, it provide the literature with further researches and information which are more in-depth.

Practical implication: Why is the topic of the article interesting and important for managers of multinational enterprises in the cotemporary global business world and how would the understanding of the article benefit the managers?

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) have operations in several countries and the topic of this article talks about global protectionism which can greatly affect the businesses of MNEs. When protectionism is greatly fuelled, MNEs may have to choose between markets (Lenway, Rehbein and Starks, 1990). Understanding this article would allow managers to be resilient to changes, it will innovate them to create supply chains that can work at low cost or even seek ways that rely less on overseas suppliers (Lenway, Rehbein and Starks, 1990).

Part C: List of references (The references should be in alphabetical order according to the last name of the first author. This part is excluded from the word count)

Abboushi, S. (2010). Trade protectionism: reasons and outcomes. Competitiveness Review, 20(5), pp.384-394.

Adele, R. and Fouda, N. (2012). Protectionism and Free Trade: A Country‘s Glory or Doom?. International Journal of Trade, [online] 3(5), pp.351-355. Available at: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/6d2a/14b98280f98e67f129c8dce66081614c7f64.pdf [Accessed 16

Aug. 2019].

Cheong, I. and Tongzon, J. (2018). The economic impact of a rise in US trade protectionism on East Asia. Journal of Korea Trade, 22(3), pp.265-279.

Lenway, S., Rehbein, K. and Starks, L. (1990). The Impact of Protectionism on Firm Wealth: The Experience of the Steel Industry. Southern Economic Journal, 56(4), p.1079.

Park, S. (2018). U.S. Protectionism and Trade Imbalance between the U.S. and Northeast Asian Countries. International Organisations Research Journal, 13(2), pp.76-100.